C (16:57)

Well, first, Glenn, I'd just like everyone to know that in addition to a background in finance, business and economics, I have seen both seasons of Landman. So I feel like this is right at my side. Sweet spot to be able to explain to everybody.

B (17:10)

Right?

C (17:11)

No, right.

B (17:12)

Got it. Good.

C (17:13)

So the headline that is hitting the markets and you have to remember that markets react to immediate news. You know, they look out long term, kind of, but they do tend to go kind of minute to minute, you know, when you're looking at it at any point in time. So the news that came out on the CNBC see is that Iran signaled safe passage for quote, non hostile ships through the Strait of Hormuz. So the market is interpreting that whether it's true or not. But in this moment of time that there is going to be more opening and particularly for countries that it may be well aligned with, especially Asia, who is, you know, very much affected by the non travel of ships through this critical junction, there has been at least the interpretation of a signal that that is going to open up somewhat. So they're perceiving that is okay, things are moving in the right direction, that, you know, there may be more transportation going through. And that is what is feeding into prices across the markets today, starting with that drop in oil, whether it's true or not.

B (18:30)

Okay, so here's where, you know, I said earlier today, look, there's nothing you can do because we don't know. So this is something be aware of, but just don't worry about it because you don't know if it's gonna get really bad or it's gonna get really good. We have no idea. Everybody is just speculating. And so when you look at the price of oil, I just don't want to be on this roller coaster every day going, oh, it's good, it's good. Everything's getting better. And then tomorrow it's no, it's all gonna fall apart. It's gonna be $250 a barrel. Because they don't know what they're talking about. There is just speculation. Is that accurate?

C (19:03)

It is entirely speculation. And you have all of these Wall street houses that are coming out with their predictions, which are forming the consensus of what people are thinking on Wall street, and it's based on a guess, and that's going to move from moment to moment based on what happens. And by the way, there are, you know, it's like a choose your own adventure book, but there's like 17 different paths to go down, and depending on which path one person goes down, another 17 open up. So we don't know. There's a great clip that's going around social media this morning with people asking kids on spring break, you know, about what's going on in Iran. They have absolutely no idea. That's kind of everybody's best bet, at least for the short term, because it's going to drive you crazy otherwise.

B (19:50)

Can I tell you, do you remember, you remember the Gulf War, the first Gulf War? And I remember. What was his name? Bernie somebody on cnn. The anchor, Bernie, he was. I think he was over in Kuwait when that started going. And they were showing the footage and the green missiles and the lights and everything else. It was night vision. And we were watching it on tv. The difference between what we see on TV now and what we saw back then, we. We were actually getting news. I don't think we're getting news. We're just getting opinions all the time and opinions I'm so sick of. I'm an opinion guy, Carol. I am so sick of people like me who are just talking out there, but they have no idea. They're guessing like everybody else.

C (20:37)

But it's not fair for you to put yourself in the same category because you actually give caveats, use information, you educate yourself so they're at least informed. The difference that we have between back then, I think I was in high school back then, is that we didn't have social media. So now everybody who was an expert on tariffs last week is now an expert on Iran and geopolitics this week, next week they're going to be an expert on AI. And you're just hearing all of the noise that everybody feels empowered to, to just put out into the universe. We used to have diaries, write down our thoughts. Now we just say, hey, we want everybody to know everything we're thinking. There is no off filter. And it's overwhelming. It really is.

B (21:27)

Yeah, it's really not helpful. I mean, we do it to ourselves. I'm not talking about regulating anybody or anything like that. I'm just like, regulate yourself. There's this. I just turn it off because it's not useful. It's just not useful.

C (21:40)

I love that line. Regulate yourself.

B (21:43)

Right. So the one question that I keep hearing from insiders is we are supposedly energy independent. We supposedly drill, baby, drill. Why is this affecting us so much? Why do we care about the oil that is coming through the strait? We are supposedly independent. Explain that.

C (22:07)

There are two reasons for it. And I'm going to use an analogy to explain the first. So basically the headline is that we're oil independent on paper, but not in reality. And the analogy I'm going to use. Yeah, I'm going to use a. We're going to be baking apple pies. Do you like apple pie, Glenn?

B (22:25)

I love apple pies.

C (22:26)

Okay, so we're going to be baking 100 apple pies for our business and it's going to require about eight medium sized apples for each of our pies. So we need 800 apples. Okay. And we just took in a delivery of 800 apples. So are we set to bake our pies?

B (22:45)

Wait, I, I was, I'm sorry. I literally was just thinking about pies. I'm sorry, you caught me. Really? I started thinking about pies and how much I love pies. So I'm sorry. Repeat it.

C (22:56)

So we got, we got our delivery. We need, we need 800 apples. We got a delivery of 800 apples. Can we bake our 100 pies.

B (23:05)

If they're the right apples, then they're all good.

C (23:08)

Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. So that's it. So we got a delivery, and we got about 400 Granny Smith and Honeycrisp, which are great. They're going to go in. Your pie is going to be delicious. But for the other pies, the other 400, we got red Delicious and Red Delicious apples aren't really good for anything. They're definitely not good for baking. They get all mealy. You wouldn't want to use them. Nobody would ever buy our pies again. So unfortunately, we. We have 800 apples, but we can't use them all for the pies. We have to use some of them for something else. So it's the same thing with oil. There are different grades and types of oil. They have different properties. And the refineries in the US Are set up to handle efficiently only certain types of oil. So we have a mismatch between what it is that we're producing and what the refiners can handle. Which means that even though on paper it looks like if you look at the numbers that were energy independent, we are still producing heavily, we're exporting heavily, and we are importing at the same time.

B (24:16)

Okay, so, so we make. Are we mainly light sweet crude?

C (24:23)

So we are. We heavily produce the light and sweet crude. But our refineries, the majority of those are set up to most efficiently process the heavy and sour. The light versus the heavy is what

B (24:37)

we get from the Middle East.

C (24:38)

Yeah, well, I think we get a lot of it from Canada. We get it from Venezuela. You know, we get it from different places. But, you know, it's. The density is the light versus the heavy, and the sweet versus the sour is about, you know, how much sulfur is in it. So the corrosiveness, the processing and all of that. So there's this mismatch, just like we had the mismatch for the apples in our pie. Now, that's only one piece of it. The other piece of it is that there is global market pricing. So even though we have this theoretically proprietary oil supply, the pricing happens on a global basis. And so somebody who's over, let's say, in Asia, if the oil in their region, let's say, is $30 higher than what it is here, and it costs them like $7 a barrel to transport it, they're still going to be better off. There's still going to be. There's a $23 difference between that $30 and the extra to transport it. So that means they're going to bid up the lower prices and you're going to close the gap due to financial arbitrage. So basically, if you think about it, the price is global, the refinery needs are very specific, and who loses on both sides of that? The consumer.

B (25:55)

Okay, so this would be, I mean, if you're a Marxist, this would be an argument you would make and say, well, that's why the refineries and the oil itself have to be owned by the United States, because then it's not in that, that free market system and we can keep the oil. It is, you know, all of this is alive.

C (26:12)

You'd still have the mismatch. So it still wouldn't work out anyway.

B (26:16)

Right. Okay. All right. Can I ask you, I read somewhere that Texas, the oil industry, I got this from Landman too. I love that. But Texas, it's not, it's not, it's not gearing up like it's a big crazy, you know, run on oil and we're, you know, about to see a big oil boom in Texas. Is that true?

C (26:42)

And if it is, why, yeah, so that's true. Today, if you are a seasoned oil professional, just like a professional any other industry, you're going to make your long term investments based on long term decisions, not based on a crisis situation. You want to look at the long term trends and things have shifted a lot in the last 15 years in terms of capital discipline. The desire for cash returns focuses on balance sheets. So the reward comes from that discipline, not growth at any cost. So before you may have seen, you know, kind of that wildcat mindset, like let's just go drill everywhere. Right now. The, you know, the powers that be, the investors, the management, they're trying to drive their gains through efficiency and technology instead of just having a drilling frenzy. So there is, has been this shift and so they're going to take a long term view on this. Obviously, if this is something that, you know, God forbid you see a lot of oil infrastructure that's damaged around the world and things shift substantially over time, I think that that calculus will come into play. But you know, again, we've watched Landman, so it looks very easy there. We're just going to go out and wildcat and get it done. But in reality, you know, they're really running the numbers, being disciplined and focusing on, you know, cash, capital discipline, plan and balance sheet control.

B (28:13)

You know, it's funny because I got the exact opposite message from Landman. I, I got the gas is so unbelievably cheap for what it takes to get that out of the ground. What these guys do. I'm one of my, you know, my nephew worked as one of the guys on the rigs. And I'm like, I call him all the time. Was it like this? And he's like, oh my gosh, every bit and more like that.

C (28:35)

Wow.

B (28:38)

Let me tell you about our, our sponsor. It's Patriot Mobile. You know, life is busy. Something like switching from one mobile phone company to another sounds like a hassle. And most of the time, it really is. I mean, you know, that's. Mobile phone companies know when they have. Yet they have you. They have you for life. But I have to tell you, your, your cell phone bill, you look at it every month, you know what you're paying. Big companies, they donate to leftist causes and you're probably doing that with your money and that's not what you want to do. Unfortunately, that's what a lot of the big mobile companies do. And they know that you're not going to change. Well, I urge you to change right now and go with a company that is the only Christian conservative company, mobile phone company that is out there, that actually takes their spare time and their profits and actually plows them back into the things that help our country. That's why Patriot Mobile is named Patriot Mobile. Patriotmobile.com Beck call 972 Patriot. Use the promo code Beck. Get a free month of service. Patriotmobile.com Beck 972 Patriot now back to the podcast. You're listening to the Best of Glenn Beck. Need a little more. Check out the full show podcasts anywhere you download podcasts. Story number one, Power. Quiet. Invisible power. Let me tell you about what Delta Airlines just did. They just adjusted its VIP treatment for members of Congress. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Delta. Thank you again. Did I say thank you, Delta? Thank you. So what does this mean? Well, for years, our elected officials just glide past all of the things that you have to do at the airport. They skip the line, they avoid the friction. They avoid you, you know, the little people, because they're special. And now Delta, thank you. Delta says, you know what, we're pausing, that we're not eliminating it. We're not, we're not debating it. We're just adjusting it for right now. And they call it a perk. Delta, I think you're using the wrong word. It is a perk. You look at it as a perk, but it's insulation. Because the moment Our leaders feel what you feel, where they stand, where you have to stand. Their decisions change. And history's really clear on this. The ruling class always separates itself first, and then it forgets what it's like to be a normal person. Rome did it. Versailles did it. Washington is doing it right now. And when that separation grows, accountability dies. There's story number one. Story number two, the border and the meaning of a nation. The Supreme Court. There's a story in the news today that appears the Supreme Court is ready to side with enforcement, allowing limits on asylum claims processed from outside the U.S. okay, strip away all of the politics here. This is the real question. Does a nation have a right to define itself? Of course it does. Or it's not a nation. How can you be a nation if the world gets to define you? This is not a modern debate. This isn't complex. This is easy. Every civilization that loses control of its borders loses control of its identity. Not overnight, but inevitably. And it's over. And here's why it matters today, what you're seeing with the Supreme Court and warning, because this could change. We lose control of the House and the Senate. You're going to lose control of who's coming up because we got a lot of old conservatives. But right now you're seeing reality. No, the law catch up to reality. They're not creating it. They're catching up to reality. Store number three. Lawfare and the weaponization of justice. There are a few stories out there now that are shocking and should be shocking and horrifying. I'm going to get into this next hour. Shocking and horrifying should shake the country to its core. New reports are out now show that efforts to obtain records tied to political figures were far more expansive than anybody admitted. Okay, let me translate that into plain English. After 9 11, we all were panicked and worried and freaking out. We're like God says patriot in the act, it must be patriotic. And so we passed a bunch of tools in a toolbox that we were told were designed to protect the public. Okay. Those tools are now aimed inward, not outward, inward. And once that line is crossed, once law becomes a weapon, you don't have equal justice anymore. You have leverage and a banana republic. And history has a lot to tell you about that. When governments begin investigating citizens differently based on political alignment, that does not stabilize a country. It fractures it every single time. 4. Iran and the illusion of control. Just told you we sent a 15 point proposal to Iran. Iran responds with demands that it's not negotiation, it's more like Victory terms. Close all your bases, you know, pay reparations. I mean, it sounded like I was on a college campus when I heard that one. At the same time, inside Iran, a story that nobody's talking about, hundreds are being arrested for speech, for cyberspace activity. Well, there's an old timey word that only guys with big gray beards would use. So I want you to understand the contradiction on this one. Externally, they're negotiating. Internally, there is no negotiation. They are tightening control. That is not a regime preparing for peace. That is a regime managing instability. And this is the part that I think most of us miss. There are credible signals that Iran is weaker than it appears. When you have an animal in a corner, they become more dangerous because they're cornered, and they're cornered again. Weak regimes don't go quietly. They either collapse or they lash out. We'll see which one is going to happen. They are lashing out internally. Story number five, the economy and what I believe is a false calm. Oil dropped today. Gold rises. Markets breathe. Based on what? What people are saying it's stabilizing. Based on what? This is the problem with our entire stock market. It's not based on anything real anymore, okay? Warnings of a recession tied directly to geopolitical shock. Hey, we've seen this movie before. We saw it in 1973 with the oil shock. We saw it with a credit shock. And 1974, this is different. This time it's different. Yeah. Is it? Because the pattern is identical. The global system stretched too thin meets disruption it can't absorb. And then things start to break, and it doesn't break evenly. It breaks where you live. It doesn't break necessarily for those who get the VIP treatment at the airport, it breaks on you. Groceries and jobs and vacations you suddenly can't afford. Which brings me to number six. Story number six. AI and the Quiet Revolution. All of this stuff is happening, and the Labor Department just launched AI training. And when I read this story, I thought, oh, just. Just what we need. The government trying to tell us how to use AI My gosh. I have briefed people in the government. I have. Okay? That's. That's how bad things are. I have briefed them on AI and they. They. I mean, it's. It's. It's like you're talking to a caveman. They have absolutely no understanding, most of them. Some do. Most of them have no understanding. I mean, they're still at the pager system. So would I get this? Would. Would. Could I get chatgpt on my Pager?

C (37:22)

No.

B (37:24)

Anyway, companies are openly saying massive job cuts are inevitable, and they're coming. And your home, your house is being integrated into the power grid to feed AI infrastructure. This is really, really, really bad. Let this sink in. Your job is going to be replaced in the next few years. Your energy is being repurposed, and you're being offered a course to adapt. It's not going to go over well. These. These server farms cannot take a drop of energy, not one piece of energy that we are now producing for the public. They must be forced to produce their own energy because they will end up sucking all of the energy. And we will be paying. We'll be paying skyrocketing prices for energy. This is the early stage of a complete economic rewiring that will happen if Donald Trump somehow or another is not allowed to finish the job on these. On these AI server farms where he is saying, I'm giving you the green light. You build your own power plant. That has to be codified. Okay, so step back. Let's look at all six stories here. What do they all have in common? One, power is separating from people. Borders are being redefined. The same time justice is being questioned. War is destabilizing. And the economy is already fragile, and technology is shaping everything underneath all of it. This is not chaos. I mean, some of it is war is chaos, but this is not chaos. This is a world in transition. There's a word for that. Realignment. The old systems that don't work, new systems aren't fully built. And the people down at the bottom and the middle, they feel that first. That's you. So what actually matters to you today? None of the politics, none of the outrage cycle, okay? The. The votes that are happening in Congress, they absolutely mean something. But listening to the pinheads argue back and forth, that is a waste of time. Watch for these things. Watch for the things when leaders stop or being forced to stop living in their palace and start living like citizens. Did I mention Delta Airlines? Thank you. When laws are applied unevenly, big danger. We're going to get into that next. When negotiations sound like ultimatums, when markets calm down too quickly for no apparent reason, and when technology moves faster than the culture, than the culture can absorb. Those are not headlines. Those are all warning lights. And one last thing. There was a line buried in all of this in our newsletter today, there is a. There's a story about preparing the way, even if you're not perfect. I think this is the most important story of the day, okay? Because none of this is going to be fixed with perfect people. History doesn't turn on perfect people. It doesn't. History turns on people who see clearly and act even though they're not perfect. Not violently, not recklessly, but deliberately. They see it. They know what they're supposed to do and they act. And they don't allow excuses to get in their way like I don't have the power. I don't really know this. I'm not the one. I'm not smart enough. It won't really make it. They just do what they're supposed to do and they're not perfect. And most times that's just teach your children that strengthen your community. That's and I'm saying this like a broken record to members of my family right now. Get back to church. Refusing to be manipulated by every headline. Those things collapse in a society doesn't begin with the loudest voices. It goes begins with the quietest bystanders and is stopped the same way by people who decide they're not going to be a bystander anymore.

D (42:02)

Not sure how to tackle your taxes? Are you sweating the small print? You may be experiencing FOMO, the fear of messing up the answer using TurboTax on Intuit credit Karma. They help you get your biggest refund and then we help you do more with it with a personalized plan designed to help you hit your money goals. It's time to take your taxes to the max. Start filing today in the Credit Karma app.